BAPS

In Robert Townsend's latest, Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle play struggling homegirls from Decatur, Georgia, who tease up their hair, do up their nails, and head off to Tinseltown to find fame and fortune as music-video dance girls. Their dreams don't quite pan out; instead, they're duped into taking the fall for a scheme to bilk a dying millionaire (Martin Landau) of his fortune. Berry, whose career has been on the skids, departs from her normally demure self with this fine performance as a loud-mouthed, booty-shaking, street-wise vixen. Unfortunately Townsend, who landed on the map by making Hollywood Shuffle on a chain of credit cards, turns the potentially funny material into formulaic drudgery. At the Holiday and Showcase cinemas.

-- Tom Meek